Adventure Leadership Program

We believe that not all classrooms have four walls. Our intensive, 2-week, residential package is a mixture of practical Japanese study, real-life cultural experiences, team-work activities and a whole lot of fun!

Travel Hokkaido’s trained and experienced bilingual staff team provide full-time support for each participant.

The unique ALP program also means that everything from housing, to meals, to activities is completely included in the plan.

We can accommodate groups aged 8 and above, and design age specific programs for individuals and groups. Normal age groupings are 8 – 11 years old, 12 – 16, or 16 – 20 – but get in touch if you wish for something tailored to your group!

What does the program look like?

Get ready for 14 days and 12 nights of learning, fun and adventures. 

Each ALP tribe (that’s what we call each group) is made up of between 6 and 20 young people. There are a mixture of ages, nationalities and personalities – but we will do our best to match you with a group if you are traveling by yourself.

We can also accommodate siblings, friendship groups, youth groups or classes wishing to travel together.  Whatever your starting point, come ready to make new friends, and get out of your comfort zone. 

We stay together. 

Each ALP tribe will stay in a large guesthouse or cabin-based accommodation, supported by a member of our residential staff team full-time – your tribe leader. This tribe leader will be your contact point for the 14 days and support you with anything you need. When you’re at home or taking part in activities, you’ll always be with your tribe leader and some of our other team (although you do have some free time each day where you can go off and explore the local area too). 

Rooms are separated into boys and girls (and we’re pretty strict on this one!), but normally between 4-8 tribe members will be sharing a dormitory room and sharing a bathroom. The guesthouses we use are clean, fun and great facilities, but for the two weeks you stay there you will be responsible for keeping your room clean and looking after the place. 

Each ALP tribe shares one large living and kitchen area, and this is the hub for studying language and hanging out together. We will be cooking and cleaning TOGETHER for the two weeks, and you’ll all be helping out! Our team are here to help, but we think that cooking together, eating together and getting the place clean afterwards is an important part of the experience, so it’s all-hands on deck. 

We learn together.

Every weekday, at different times throughout the day, we’ll have two 45 minute intensive Japanese lessons. These will give you some of the phrases, vocabulary and grammar that you’re going to need for the activities that week.

For instance, if we are making mochi in the afternoon, we’ll be giving you some handy hints for what the teacher will saying and reading the recipe in Japanese. If we are playing sports, then we’ll use this as the basis for the lesson so you can start to think in Japanese. 

We believe that if we can keep the Japanese you are learning linked to your daily activities, it will help you use, remember and retain what you learn more easily than simply doing exercises in a textbook.  Our Japanese teachers are fully trained and experienced with their Japanese licenses, but they will come to our ALP guesthouse and teach us using the whiteboard and large room there. 

We experience together.

Every weekday afternoon/evening, we’ll have either a cultural or social activity. You might be making some kind of Japanese food, playing sports, taking a trip out to a local park, or having some teamwork activities. We believe learning also takes place through having a lot of fun – so get ready get out and about, enjoy the season, and see lots of the local area. 

We will also be taking some bigger day trips to really enjoy Hokkaido at it’s best. Depending on which places are best at the time of year you come, we’ll be jumping into our own bus and getting into Hokkaido for some of our own adventures. 

Most evenings we’ll cook together. We’ll introduce some Japanese dishes, but on some nights we’d love it if you could introduce a dish from your home country too.  We’ll also have time to chill out in the evening, watch some movies, visit a local games centre and play some competitive board-games. 

Each day, our program will give you some free time to explore Sapporo by yourself. It’s a very safe city, but wherever possible, we ask that you stay with someone else from the ALP tribe. We have a 24-7 emergency contact number too and can recommend some places you might like to go shopping, or some interesting things to see near the guesthouse. 

Who are the ALP team? 

Our team is always growing and changing, but we have some core members who are here to help you to have the best time possible.